When designing an in-vehicle PC, there are a lot of challenges that system integrators might experience due to the harsh in-vehicle environment and the real on-field applications, especially for the power management. Acrosser, as an IPC manufacturer for over 23 years, has designed the comprehensive intelligent power management subsystem solution for the in-vehicle PC to conquer all the challenges and provides the advanced features to benefit the in-vehicle application.

Challenge 1: Different type of in-vehicle battery and unstable power

Solution : Wide range power input

In general, there is 12V or 24V battery in use for vehicle. Acrosser power management subsystem will take wide range power input to support both kinds of batteries. And there might be a random surge or unstable power output from the battery during operation that the wide range input feature can protect the system from unstable surge as well. Acrosser’s in vehicle computers are all protected with over voltage, transient voltage suppression protections to meet ISO 7637-2 standard.

Challenge 2: In-vehicle PC might drain the main battery

Solution : Input power monitoring

It’s very important to not have in-vehicle PC drain the main vehicle battery. First, The Acrosser power management subsystem will automatically determine whether it’s a 12V or 24V battery, and automatically set different threshold correspondingly. Then it will constantly monitor the input voltage from the main battery. Once the input voltage is lower than the pre-defined threshold for a period of time, it will trigger the shut down process to prevent the in-vehicle PC from draining the main battery.

Challenge 3: No power provided after vehicle ignition is off

Solution: Power delay circuit

To consider the reality that user may need to synchronize or upload data from in-vehicle PC to the control center after vehicle ignition is off. The power delay circuit allows user to operate the in-vehicle PC after the ignition is off for a period of time and then properly shut down the PC automatically.

Challenge 4: Hard to define and customize power control mode and delay time

Solution: User friendly interface

Without worrying about the hardware configuration or software programming, Acrosser implements a user friendly interface for user to easily define and customize the power delay time and the system power on/off control mode. Application program can also change the parameters through APIs provided in software development kit.

Challenge 5: Unknown in-vehicle PC operation status

Solution: Built-In status LED

Some applications might not attach a display to the in-vehicle PC, so it becomes difficult to know the system status of the PC and to diagnose if any problem happened. Hence Acrosser builds in a system status LED to indicate the current system status, such as in operation, in power delay, in standby or in system off status.

Challenge 6: Car ignition doesn’t power up the PC properly

Solution: Power on/off retry

When the system power on/off mode is controlled by the car ignition, it’s impossible to turn off the ignition and turn it back on just to restart the in-vehicle PC. Hence, Acrosser power management subsystem will automatically detect and monitor the system status. If the system isn’t powered on/off properly by ignition, the power management subsystem will retry until success.

When the system power on/off mode is controlled by the car ignition, it’s impossible to turn off the ignition and turn it back on just to restart the in-vehicle PC. Hence, Acrosser power management subsystem will automatically detect and monitor the system status. If the system isn’t powered on/off properly by ignition, the power management subsystem will retry until success.

Acrosser’s in-vehicle PCs are honored with Taiwan Excellence Award 2010, and Taiwan ITS/Telematics Award 2011. And our in-vehicle PC solutions have been successfully introduced to a lot of different applications globally, including fleet management, fatigue management, logistic/collection system, airport vehicle traffic management, bus management and so on. With those affirmations from industries and customers, we are confident to develop more and more reliable and advanced in-vehicle PC solutions to benefit the users.